Goodell hears appeals of Saints officials

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell heard appeals Thursday from Saints officials sanctioned over the team's use of a bounty program designed to injure opponents during the 2009-11 seasons.

Goodell could rule Friday. He suspended coach Sean Payton for the 2012 season, gave general manager Mickey Loomis an eight-game suspension and assistant coach Joe Vitt a six-game ban. Goodell also stripped the Saints of second-round draft picks in 2012 and 2013 and fined them $500,000. Former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who organized and ran the bounty program, was suspended indefinitely. He did not appeal.

NFL investigators reopened the investigation in January. The league told the team to discontinue bounties immediately, but said the Saints continued offering them to players who sent opponents out of games with injuries.

Payton and Loomis left meetings with Goodell at the NFL's Manhattan headquarters and did not comment.

If Goodell upholds Payton's suspension, it could lead to the hiring of former Giants, Patriots, Jets and Cowboys coach Bill Parcells, who told Newsday last week he would seriously consider taking the Saints' job on an interim basis if asked by Payton, his close friend.

Vitt's attorney, David Cornwell, blamed Williams for the bounty system. He called him a "rogue coach'' who disregarded directives from Payton and Loomis to end it when told the NFL had reopened its probe in January.

Yahoo! Sports reported Thursday that Williams was heard before a playoff game against the 49ers urging his players to target Michael Crabtree, Frank Gore and Alex Smith. Williams rubbed his thumb and forefinger, suggesting that players could earn money for big hits. The speech was recorded by Sean Pamphilon, a documentary filmmaker working on a piece about former Saints player Steve Gleason, who is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease.

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Williams also mentioned 49ers punt returner Kyle Williams, who suffered concussions earlier in the season. Williams' father, Ken, general manager of the White Sox, ripped Gregg Williams in a statement to the Chicago Tribune: "Personally, suspension or not, it's probably best I'm never in a room with Gregg Williams. [I] wonder if such an order crosses the lines of the aggressive, competitive spirit we all love about the sport and leans closer to a criminal act and therefore litigious matter.''

Cornwell said, "It was around the Detroit [playoff] game that the Saints were advised that the investigation had been reopened. Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton went to Gregg and said there's no place for this . . . and Sean will tell you that in his view what you saw was a rogue coach who knew he was about to get fired.''

Williams was told two days after the loss to the 49ers that he would not be back, Cornwell said. He was hired as Rams defensive coordinator before being suspended.

Cornwell defended Vitt, saying he was not complicit in the program.

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Said Vitt: "The commissioner has a tough job. I've tried to earn the respect of my players. Now, I want to earn the respect of [Goodell] . . . We don't teach this, but we have to watch what we say and what we do.''